The oscilloscope, which is a highly appreciated universal measuring instrument because it presents results in graphical form, is eminently suitable for an overall and rapid analysis of phenomena to be examined. However, in the case of phenomena which are non-recurrent or which have a low repetition rate the results do not remain available long enough to permit such an analysis by the user. Moreover, such results cannot readily be transferred to an electronic processing or analyzing apparatus.
Therefore, it has become necessary to equip the oscilloscope with an apparatus for digitizing and storing the signals, for example an analogue-to-digital converter with real-time input to a digital memory. The acquisition rate depends on the conversion speed of the converter, which prohibits the use of this technique in very fast digital oscilloscopes unless the apparatus is preceded by an acquisition system which comprises an analogue memory whose real-time input is provided by a high-speed writing device. The well-known general principle is shown in FIG. 1, with the following operations being effected: acquisition (A1) of the signals (S) corresponding to the phenomenon to be examined by fast writing (A2) into an analogue memory, read-out (B) of this memory, analogue-to-digital conversion (C), digital storage (D), display (E2) after digital-to-analogue conversion (E1).